A Metropolitan Police sergeant has been dismissed for gross misconduct after being found to have operated and publicly promoted his mobile pizza company on days he was recorded as absent from duty through illness.
Matt Skelt, a firearms officer with 34 years of service, was signed off on long-term sick leave for much of 2025 and into January this year. During that period, social media posts showed him attending events, selling pizza outside a pub two days a week, appearing at a birthday party and working a Christmas market while promoting the business.
The disciplinary hearing, held in Sutton, south-west London, was told that Skelt had originally received permission from the Met to run the pizza firm. However, a letter issued in August 2025 indicated that authorisation was being withdrawn on the grounds it was incompatible with his phased return to work and ongoing recovery.
Skelt argued the August letter did not constitute a binding order and maintained he had never hidden the fact he was running the business. He told the panel he had continued operating it solely to prepare financially for his approaching retirement, describing himself as caught in “the impossible position of following the order or not being able to provide for myself when I retired.”
He added that the prospect of being dismissed for gross misconduct had been deeply distressing. “My reputation means a lot to me,” he said. “The very last thing I wanted to do was to challenge the authority of the Metropolitan Police.”
The panel rejected his position. Chairwoman and Assistant Commissioner Rachel Williams concluded that Skelt had been “well enough to work but not well enough to serve the public in any capacity,” finding that he should at minimum have stepped back from any public-facing role with the company once the August letter was received.
Nasreen Shah, representing the tribunal’s appropriate authority, said social media evidence had shown Skelt working on days he was formally recorded as absent from the force through sickness.
